Ahead of this summer’s inaugural Women’s World Football Cup, the Confederation of Independent Football Associations (CONIFA) are delighted to introduce d’Alary Dalton and Rosa Simonet in their respective roles of Women’s Football Director and Women’s Football Media Manager, writes Tom Howe.

d’Alary joins CONIFA with a wealth of experience in the women’s game. Throughout her career, she’s founded and built soccer clubs, and is currently Founder and President of Alta California Sol (“Alta”) based in California as well as Sol Soccer Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Alta.

She also currently serves on the board of The Sports Bra Project – a non-profit that increases access to sports for girls and women by providing sports bras to athletes who don’t have access to such a basic piece of equipment. 

Previously, she served as the CONIFA Women’s Director for North America and Caribbean.  

“I am thrilled to be joining CONIFA in the role of Women’s Global Director,” said d’Alary.

“The mission of CONIFA is inspiring and I really like ambitious goals, especially around women’s soccer. 

“I also believe that I can help continue the positive momentum and growth of the women’s side that our members have started.

“My goals are to grow membership through outreach and building awareness of CONIFA Women as well as to support and strengthen our current members by creating more opportunities to showcase their teams and talent.”

Strengthening CONIFA’s commitment to the women’s game, Rosa joins in the newly-created role of Women’s Football Media Manager. Rosa is a footballer and storyteller based in Birmingham, England. 

As well as playing for local teams, Rosa represented the University of Manchester for three years and has taken her love of football and writing across the globe. 

Throughout the past five years, Rosa has worked and volunteered for many empowering projects – many of which focus on developing accessible and inclusive practices. 

She is currently the Festival Producer for Flatpack Film Festival, Creative Practitioner for Don’t Settle and Marketing and Development Coordinator for Stage2 Youth Theatre. Rosa also volunteers for Refugee Action.

“I am incredibly excited to take on the role of Women’s Football Media Manager at CONIFA,” said Rosa. “Supporting women and marginalised genders in sport is a long-standing passion of mine and I can’t wait to share my skills as a writer to tell the stories of the many women who make up CONIFA. 

“As a footballer, I share the experience many women in sport have of being in a cis male-dominated space and not being celebrated. 

“My goals are to share the journeys of the women, celebrate their talent on a global platform and encourage more of our members to embrace women’s football teams and the journey to gender equity.”

Global President, Per-Anders Blind, welcomed the news, saying: “As President and founder of CONIFA, I’ve followed the organisation’s growth since the start. For more than eight years now, we’ve talked and discussed about the importance of inclusion and giving the opportunity to as many as possible to enjoy the beautiful game of football and encourage friendship and cultural exchange between people.

“This year (2022), we finally go from talking into action and make it a reality. As President I’m honoured and the organisation is blessed to have our wonderful Women’s Football Director, d’Alary Dalton, onboard. I’ve had the pleasure to work closely with her in the start of this amazing journey and there’s only positive impressions to report. 

“2022, is for sure a historical year for CONIFA and one of many milestones has finally been reached, and this is just the start for a journey of 100 years to come. Therefore I’m really happy to see that the Women’s Football Committee delegates are growing in numbers.

“Rosa Simonet has strong recommendations behind her and an impressive track record of duties accomplished. CONIFA sincerely welcome her to our global family of joy, happiness and friendship.

“The role as Women’s Football Media Manager is a key position in the organisation and I’m fully confident that Miss Simonet will take on the objectives at highest standards.

”A perfect start is the upcoming CONIFA Women’s World Football Cup in Paonta Cholsum, India, hosted by the Tibetan Nations Sports Association. The tournament will be an enormous celebration of Women’s Football and give the participating teams, delegates and visitors a memory for life. Especially when the final is played on His Holiness, the 14th Dalai Lama’s birthday.”

Details of the aforementioned Women’s World Football Cup, in the form of an official announcement, will follow later this month.

Contact Details:

d’Alary Dalton – dalary.dalton@conifa.org

Rosa Simonet – rosa.msimonet@gmail.com